Track device for handling cars



(No Model.)

B. PREPONTAINE.

TRACK DEVICE FOR HANDLING CARS.

No. 388,073. Patented Aug.'21, 1888.

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WiT-NESSES. INVENTOR, Z0ZvfiIywoZZ (9 U1 ttorney ijnrran STATES PATENT @rnica.

EPHRAIM PREFONTAINE, OF OLINTONVILLE, ILLINOIS.

TRACK DEVICE FOR HANDLING CARS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 388,073 dated August 21 1888.

(No model.)

To (,tZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, EPHRAIM PREFONTAINE, a subject of the Queen of England, and a resident of Olintonville, in the county of Kane, State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Track Device for Handling Cars, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to track devices for handling cars, and has particular reference to such devices as are employed for the purpose of bringing forward unfilled cars,and then removing them after they have been filled with soil from a cut, or for other similar purposes.

The object of my invention is to provide means whereby the ordinary railroad frogs and switches may be dispensed with in such devices.

My invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein Figure 1 is a plan view. Fig. 2 is a plan view of a modification. Fig. 3 is a cross sec tion on the line xmof Fig. 1. Fig. 4 is a crossseetion on the line y y, Fig. 1.

Like parts are indicated by the same letter in all the figures.

A is the mainline track, having the rails B B and ties O C. This track is laid down in sections, perhaps thirty feet long, ahead of the point where the secondary light cartrack opens onto the main track.

D is a secondary light car-traek,having the elevated rails D D and ties 1) D These rails D D are elevatedabove the top of the rails 13 B a distance equal to the radial depth of an ordinary car-wheel flange. Between the rails B B and in line with the rail D is the rail D, similarly elevated and terminating at each end at points adjacent to the side of the rails B B, but at such distances therefrom as to permit the flanges of the car-wheels of such cars as may be on the main line to pass between the sides of the rails B B and the ends of the rail D D" is a flat plate fitting snugly at one end against the side of one rail B, and at the other against the end of the rail D. This flat plate is of the same height as the top of the rail B, to which it is adjacent. The rail D abuts against the side of the rail 13, and for the most part it is elevated, as above set forth, above the top of the railB; but ithas a short shoulder, E, to

permit the tread of the wheel to pass without bruising the end of the rail D The description so far has applied to Figs. 1, 3, and 4.. In Fig. 2 I have shown a modiiication.

E is an elevated rail, which terminates in the portion F parallel with, slightly removed from, and a flange depth higher than the adjacent rail B.

G is an elevated rail, which leads to a block,

H, which abuts against the rail B.

D is a rail in Fig. 2, exactly similar to and performing the same oilice as the rail D in Fig. 1.

J is a broad flat plate,which is depressed below the surface of the adjacent rail B by as much as the radial depth of a flange of a carwheel, being twice that depth below the rail D The plates K K and L L constitute an elevated frame,secured to the rails and ties at such position as to keep the wheels of the car from passing off the rails as the ear comes from the secondary light car-track to the main track. It operates in the same manner as similar devices are now employed at railroad crossings and switches.

The use and operation of my invention are as follows, and I have first described its application as illustrated in Fig. l.

The light unloaded cars are brought in on the secondary track D. As soon as the flange of the wheel reaches the block I), the weight of that car-wheel rests upon the block D and not upon the rail D. It traverses this block uutilit passes upon the top of the rail B, when immediately the tread of the wheel engages the elevated top of the rail D and the car passes on. Vhen the ear-wheel has reached the shoulder E, the flange begins to ride upon the top of the rail B, though the tread of the wheel is supported upon the prolonged end of the rail D; but it soon crosses the rail B and drops into position upon the main line, as does also the other wheel on the opposite side. In like manner the rear trucks pass upon the main track. The car is then pushed forwarda short distanee,to where it may be filled by a steamcylinder, or otherwise, with what it is to contain-as, for instance, the contents of a cut on a line of a new railroad. It is then passed back upon the main line and another car is brought forward. The track ahead of the point where the secondary light car-track connects with the main track may be made up of short removable sections, and when the excavation has gone so far as to permit the laying of an ordinary thirty-foot rail a section of track is made and the secondary light cartrack is taken up and moved forward. In Fig. 2 I have shown a modification which in many instances may be valuable. It is designed to permit the rear trucks of the car to go upon the main line more easily than they would perhaps do in the device shown in Fig. 1. The forward trucks pass upon the main line, as above described, and the flange of the wheel which travels on the rail E crosses the adjacent rail B, as indicated by the dotted line. Now, when the forward end of the car is a carlength forward on the main track the rear trucks might be strained in passing onto the track by such an abrupt curve. Therefore the flange of the wheel which travels upon the rail E crosses the adjacent rail 13, as indicated by the long dotted line, and in like manner the flange of the wheel which travels upon the rail D passes across the top of the plate J, as shown by the dotted line, running down the edge of the rail D to the rail B, as would be the action in case of the forward truck. In this manner there is no appreciable wear on the rails of the main track from crossing the same, and frogs and switches as ordinarily used are dispensed with.

Many modifications of my device could perhaps be made; but as shown in the drawings it has been used by me with great success, and

2. The combination of the unobstructed I rails of a main line with the rails of a secondary line, one of which latter abuts against and the other for a distance runs parallel with one of the main-line rails,and both higher than the main-line rails, and the short and elevated rail between and abutting against neither of the mainline rails and parallel with said secondary rail which abuts against the main rail.

3. The combination of the rails of a main line with the elevated rails of a secondary line, one of them lying for a considerable distance parallel with and near to one rail of the main line, and a plate which lies on the inside of the other rail of the main line.

EPHRAIM PREFONTAINE.

Witnesses:

'CORA L. CADWALLADER, JOHN R. UETTENSTROM. 

